I feel like people who are hoping Ward gets fired are just clinging to false hope. Yes, Ward is a problem. But we also just have a really inconsistent group of players. The whole make-up of this team is just mediocre, from top down.
I think championship teams have the following:
1. Elite #1 center (eg. Crosby, Toews) - we don't have that
2. Elite #1 defenseman (eg. Hedman, Pietrangelo) - we don't have that
3. Elite goaltender (eg. Vasilevsky, Rask) - we have that!
4. Good coach (eg. Cooper, Julien) - we don't have that
5. Depth scoring and shut down defense (eg. TB and Chicago's forward depth when they won their cups, LA and St
Louis's defense when they won) - we don't have that
6. Buy in to a team system and identity (eg. St. Louis's and LA's power game, TB's structure) - we don't have that
At this point, I'm hoping Ward gets fired too. We hire a competent coach and we might go on a run like the Hartley run and the Peters division championship. But those runs will not last and they will definitely not win us a Cup. We just have way too many pieces missing. This team is the definition of mediocrity and has been for a long time.
|